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Energy companies.........something you may not know!

edited December 2011 in Not Sports Related

I'm with EDF and have been for some years.

I live in a communial private block of houses and all our meters are in one cupboard outside which are easily accessable and easy to find by anyone coming to read the meters.

More often than not (about 80% of the time I'd say), we are getting 'estimated' readings and in the past I have been as much as £300+ in credit with them, due to them having taken amounts way over actual usage.

They've done it again today, which means I have to go to all the trouble of reading the meter and phoning in the correct reading.

When I complained that the meters wern't being read often enough I was informed that legaly they are only obliged to read the meters once ...YES ONCE.. a year!

If you pay by direct debit (which you are of course encouraged like mad to do) this gives them cart blanche open house to estimate your bill to an extraordinary amount, take your money and sit on it earning vast amounts of interest from the thousands upon thousands(millions maybe?) of folk they have done this to.

They of course employ private companies to read the meters who in my experience do as little as they possibly can to get away with.......this is an outrageous rip off and the law concerning the reading of meters needs changing ............and pronto.

They put the onus on the end user to inform them of any disrepancies due to over payment of estimated readings........... outrageous!

How about folk that are unwell....in hospital....elderly...forgetful or abroad even...the reasons why one may not be in a position to read your meter are countless...but if you don't, then woe betide, they simply gain from it all ends up.

Quite apart from the fact that you have the inconvenience of having to do it yourself and contact them cap in hand, even if you are capable and in a position to do so.............RIP OFF!!! 

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Comments

  • Oof! I'm with Scottish power who aren't bad. The deal I'm on means you enter your own readings online. Previously, I was hundreds in credit.
  • I understand what you're saying about people who are incapacitated, but I find it quite easy to read my meter and update it online.  Besides which, most companies offer a discount for paying via direct debit, so in the long run you do save money.
  • I understand what you're saying about people who are incapacitated, but I find it quite easy to read my meter and update it online.  Besides which, most companies offer a discount for paying via direct debit, so in the long run you do save money.


    Offer a discount.....well if that's what you want to call it.

    How about saying they penalise you if you don't?

  • I understand what you're saying about people who are incapacitated, but I find it quite easy to read my meter and update it online.  Besides which, most companies offer a discount for paying via direct debit, so in the long run you do save money.


    Offer a discount.....well if that's what you want to call it.

    How about saying they penalise you if you don't?

    I think that's more of a 'glass half empty' way of looking at it!
  • edited December 2011
    all the major energy companies are foreign owned (along with airports, train companies and water companies) .. I object most strongly to getting ripped off by greedy shareholders, especially when those shareholders are not even English ............. b***ards
  • edited December 2011
    With you 100% Lincs.
  • People. Lots of people can't now afford to keep warm and I don't just mean those on low incomes or benefits. It's a disgrace and the politicians who lets not forget are in this with us NOT should be making this a real priority. Those most vulnerable will die this winter and we should be ashamed.
  • Seriously though, how difficult is it for 99% of the population to read a meter or get someone to do it for them?

    Agree about the difficulty in trying to get your money back from them though. They ALWAYS get you to pay over the odds and then try to give you some old shit to try and stop you getting your credit back. If I wanted a savings plan I'd do it somewhere with a better return!
  • edited December 2011
    Thing is they don't ask me to read the meter..they just send an overestimated bill every time and then 'expect' me the customer to sort the problem out. If for any reason I don't, they happily take well over the odds charges.....it's simply way out of order!
  • It's easy to resolve though isn't it - just read the meter yourself.

    I get you and I'm with you, but I just don't think it's too much of a problem. But you're right, they have geared it up so that the default position is you pay too much. In effect they are relying on people being a bit lazy and just paying over the odds.
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  • Has been going on for Donkey's years, though they at least used to read twice a year. Powerkeys are an even bigger rip-off.

    Where are you based - Templar? I worked in Newington (IT) for 11 years

     

  • When I was living in a rented student house, this happened to me.
  • Not had your winter fuel allowance throught yet SoundAs?

     

    :-)

  • I've just switched from Br Gas to Ovo (dual fuel).  I can't say how good they are yet, but their tariffs (all 2 of them- greener and greenest) are competitive and they have a very good reputation compared to the Big 6 for customer support, etc (80% satisfaction compared to 35 - 40% for npower and Br Gas).  If you end up in credit, they pay you 3% interest (monthly), so there is an incentive for them to make sure you don't build up credit through overpayments.  You are expected to enter readings online.  I pay by DD.  I think they're British owned. 
  • With Ovo too - no complaints so far, even though I'm about £300 in credit, but I dont mind that as we come in to the expensive months. And there is the little bit of interest too (about £1 a month but the gesture is there). Tariff was fixed for a year too.
  • I was looking online recently for a paraffin heater which we used all the time in our council flat when I was a kid. You used to go to a machine outside the local hardware shop and fill it up, and the heater was quite a tall, sort of triangular affair...I suppose they've developed somewhat since those days.

    Intend to get my fireplace sorted out in the next week or two, and get me logs and some bags of fuel from the farm shop in Hayes lane, unless anybody knows a better place....hardward shops and garages are a total rip off for the solid fuel.

  • Used to have a paraffin heater when I was a little kid ......had the trade name 'Valour' just below the vents.

    Haven't seen parafifn heaters used for many years now.
    Anyone still use one?
  • Used to have a paraffin heater when I was a little kid ......had the trade name 'Valour' just below the vents.

    Haven't seen parafifn heaters used for many years now.
    Anyone still use one?
    ours was an Alladin heater .. I used to call it 'the Crazy World of Arthur Brown' ... paraffin heaters were the cause of sooooooo many house fires but the modern ones are much safer .. and much more expensive
  • Not advisable to have a paraffin heater - firstly they're dangerous, secondly they're expensive to run and finally they produce about two pints of water for every pint of paraffin you burn - condensation everywhere.

    Best bet is to get an oil filled electric radiator - save, efficient and thermostatically controlled.

  • edited December 2011

     

    Best bet is to get an oil filled electric radiator - save, efficient and thermostatically controlled.




     

    I have central heating, would an oil filled electric radiator be any cheaper? Was musing on paraffin heaters to cut down on the central heating.

    BTW are electric blankets costing me a fortune, tend to leave them on at full for about three hours before bedtime....but I think I may be being very stupid, don't wan't a toasty bed to be costing the earth, and yes I know three hours is too long and I should become more precise.

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  •  

    Best bet is to get an oil filled electric radiator - save, efficient and thermostatically controlled.


     

    I have central heating, would an oil filled electric radiator be any cheaper? Was musing on paraffin heaters to cut down on the central heating.

    BTW are electric blankets costing me a fortune, tend to leave them on at full for about three hours before bedtime....but I think I may be being very stupid, don't wan't a toasty bed to be costing the earth, and yes I know three hours is too long and I should become more precise.

    hot water bottles ?
  • If you just want to heat one room or give some extra heat to a room, then oil filled radiators are perfect - being thermostatically controlled they will turn off when your set temperature is reached and they can be put on timers.

    I find them a great way to take the 'chill' off the room without having to fire up the central heating.

  • Not advisable to have a paraffin heater - firstly they're dangerous, secondly they're expensive to run and finally they produce about two pints of water for every pint of paraffin you burn - condensation everywhere.

    Best bet is to get an oil filled electric radiator - save, efficient and thermostatically controlled.

    Actually, while I was waiting for the kettle to boil ............ I googled "Paraffin stoves"

    It seems that they've moved with the times - high tech, thermostats, no condensation, 59 hours heating for the price of 5 litres of paraffin ........ difficult to knock over, and anyway they will just cut out. So safe.

    Made a change from Trainspottin'.
  • I'm with Eon.  I reckon they read the meters at least a couple of times a year and the estimates are impressively accurate.  Apart from the last quarter's gas reading but that was more to do with the house being empty for a while.  Of course the charges are pretty much the same as the other big suppliers but at least they aren't hoarding my money.

    BTW, Both Centrica (owners of British Gas) and Scottish & Southern Electricity - or SSE as they are now known - are listed on the London Stock Exchange, and are based in the UK.  I know because I'm one of the SSE's "greedy shareholders".  As are most of your pension funds and they'll hold shares in the "german and french" power companies too.  If you bothered to look you'd see the dividends are not that brilliant considering its a regulated industry.  The real greedy b***ards are oddly enough in the socialist state of Russia who are charging way over the top for their exported gas supplies.  Still it's easier to blame capitalists for greed isn't it?

  • Wait until the vast reserves of shale gas we have start to come on line - the price will drop big time and we can tell the Russians to stuff it.
  • Wait until the vast reserves of shale gas we have start to come on line - the price will drop big time and we can tell the Russians to stuff it.
    and as a bonus, Blackpool will disappear into a bottomless pit
  • edited December 2011

    SoundAsa£, I'm also with EDF.

    I'm on an internet tariff = cheaper.

    I'm on the read your own meters scheme & post your figures online = cheaper

    I pay by DDR = cheaper.

    If you're in credit I ask for a refund & they do it straight away as well.

    The choices are all there if you look into it.

  • BTW are electric blankets costing me a fortune, tend to leave them on at full for about three hours before bedtime....but I think I may be being very stupid, don't wan't a toasty bed to be costing the earth, and yes I know three hours is too long and I should become more precise.
    Seriously, get a grip! Three hours of electric blankets or just man up and get into bed and maybe shiver for about 4 seconds before you warm up.
  • I often find myself working at home on a laptop until quite late, and it gets hot. As my heating is not efficient, I just slide the closed down warm laptop between the sheets before I go to bed, and voila! - by the time I've brushed my teeth the bed's nicely warmed up using heat that would have otherwise been wasted.
  • Get yourself ........... a hot water bottle!

    ;o)
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